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Khadr secret document released by accident

Five-page memo reveals that Toronto-born man not the only one alive in compound when U.S. soldier killed

GUANTANAMO BAY — A classified document mistakenly released to
reporters today revealed that Omar Khadr wasn't the only one alive in
an Afghan compound when an American soldier was fatally wounded.

Toronto-born
Khadr was captured in Afghanistan at the age of 15 following a lengthy
firefight with U.S. forces. The Pentagon has charged Khadr with five
war crimes, including the murder of Christopher Speer, a Delta Force
soldier and medic who died 10 days after the firefight from grenade
wounds.

The five-page secret document is based on an interview
with the man who shot Khadr twice in the back. Identified only as OC-1,
the witness described to an interviewer what he saw after the grenade
was thrown in the July 27, 2002 attack.

"He heard moaning
coming from the back of the compound. The dust rose up from the ground
and began to clear, he then saw a man facing him lying on his right
side," the report states.

"The man had an AK-47 on the ground
beside him and the man was moving. OC-1 fired one round striking the
man in the head and the movement ceased. Dust was again stirred by this
rifle shot. When the dust rose, he saw a second man sitting up facing
away from him leaning against the brush. This man, later identified as
Khadr, was moving . . . OC-1 fired two rounds both of which struck
Khadr in the back."

A Pentagon spokesperson would not confirm
whether OC-1 was part of Speer's Delta Force team, the other military
units involved in the attack, or from another U.S. agency such as the
CIA.

The report also states that OC-1 deduced that it was Khadr
who threw the grenade due to his position, and because the other man
was firing a rifle at the same time.

"Based on his extensive
combat experience, OC-1 believed that Khadr and the man at the back of
the alley with the AK rifle were the only two alive at the time of the
assault. He felt that due to the grenade being thrown simultaneously to
the directed rifle fire that the grenade was thrown by someone other
than the man who was firing the rifle."

Controversy erupted
outside the military courthouse when it was revealed the document was
inadvertently given to reporters attending the trial. At first, a court
security official said the document must be returned and that reporters
might not be allowed to attend future hearings if they didn't comply.
After reporters refused, and following 90 minutes of negotiation, it
was agreed that only the names of the soldiers and their units, Khadr's
prison number and specific dates and locations in the report couldn't
be revealed. With the exception of three names in the document, all
those facts have already appeared in media reports.

The document
had accidentally been attached to pretrial motions that were given to
reporters by a spokesperson for the Office of Military Commissions and
Guantanamo's Chief of Defence. If the document had not been released by
mistake it would noy have been made public, leaving some to question
the Pentagon's assertion that the Guantanamo trials will be
transparent.

"There's no openness about this process," said
Khadr's military lawyer Navy Lt.-Cmdr. Bill Kuebler after the hearing.
"It's not that the government shouldn't be able to protect information
when there is a legitimate need to protect it, it's the government's
overuse of classification . . . that basically keep one hundred percent
of the evidence in the case outside of the public's view except if the
government decides to sort of dribble it out to you."

Khadr
appeared at the hearing this morning wearing a white prison uniform,
indicating he is one of Guantanamo's "highly compliant" detainees. His
hair was cut short and his beard was full. Unlike his November
appearance where he seemed relaxed and confident, Khadr spent most of
the morning session writing notes to his Canadian lawyer Dennis Edney
and drawing with a pen the guards gave him.

In addition to the
charge of "murder in violation of the laws of war," Khadr is charged
with attempted murder, spying, conspiracy and providing material
support to terrorism.

His lawyers argued today that his
upcoming May trial should be dismissed, challenging among other things
the legitimacy of the process and whether crimes such as conspiracy and
spying constituted war crimes.

Kuebler also argued that when
Congress endorsed the Military Commission Act, under which Khadr is
charged, it didn't envision the prosecution of detainees under the age
of 18 at the time of the alleged offence. Prosecutors countered that
Congress was aware of Khadr's case when approving the 2006 law and did
not specify an age requirement for trials.

Col. Peter
Brownback, the military judge presiding over Khadr's case, did not
render any decisions on the motions before recessing for the day.